Islamabad the 31st October 2017 – 2D bar-coding of drugs to eradicate counterfeit and spurious drugs; DRAP moving with practical support to pharmaceutical companies through its training program across the country. Spokes man of DRAP.

DRAP said Time for protection of public from spurious and counterfeit drugs through technical system is close. Pharmaceutical manufacturers are required to emboss 2D Barcode data matrix on their registered drug products from all batches manufactured by December, 15, 2017. By virtue of Notification No. 470(I)/2017 issued by DRAP on 15th June, 2017, it is mandatory for all Market Authorization Holders of Pharmaceutical drugs will emboss a 2D barcode on their products. Barcodes will be according to the standards of GS-I embedding Product identification code (GTIN), Expiry Date, Batch Number and Price on the secondary packaging of drugs.

Companies will maintain database of bar-coding information of their products and will also submit it to DRAP.DRAP has developed an online portal named as “Drug Regulatory Information System (DRIS)”.Pharma companies and market authorization holders of products will access this portal through a validated account; without any subscription fee.

In her statement on the occasion Federal Minister for National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar expressed satisfaction that major initiatives taken by her Ministry is now being implemented and will give a major boost to eradicating spurious and counterfeit drugs.

In this regard, DRAP IT professional arranged training sessions for technical personnel of Pharma manufacturers in all provincial headquarters. First training session was held in Karachi on 30th October attended by representative from national and multinational companies and their associations including Pharma Bureau and Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association. Subsequent sessions are being arranged in Lahore, Peshawar and Islamabad. Focal person from Division of Management Information System, DRAP conducted this training and answered the technical queries regarding the firms online registration on this software. He stated that DRAP is working on complete track and trace system as per international practices.

A step wise approach has been adopted while taking stake holders on board. In second phase, bar-coding will also be mandatory for primary and tertiary packaging of drugs. In third phase, each pack will contain a unique serialization code along with 2D data matrix. All these steps will be very helpful to eradicate the menace of spurious, substandard, falsified and counterfeiting drugs form market of Pakistan. The training material is also available on the website of Authority.